Article excerpt

As many as 10,000 U.S. military personnel may have been subjected to top-secret chemical and biological tests conducted during the 1960s, according to Rick Weidman, director of government relations for the Vietnam Veterans of America. His group, along with other organizations and individuals, seeks full disclosure on the part of the Defense Department as to the extent of the testing on soldiers, sailors and Marines of that era. According to a report in the Hartford Courant (Conn.), the Pentagon has acknowledged that several thousand personnel were subject to experimental biological and chemical spraying of military ships off California and Hawaii. That admission, which critics say is far short of the whole story, was prompted by inquiries from CBS News and several members of Congress.

Quite a few (hundreds, at least) of those involved in the project have developed serious illnesses over the years, and many are asking if their afflictions might be related to the sprayings. Gerald Foster, a retired U.S. Navy veteran who skippered a light tug that was sprayed, said his men wore chemical suits and masks during the exercise. …